Descending into Tartarus
by Proj. Cadmus
Summary: With the Titans off fighting the Brotherhood of Evil, Slade and Brother Blood team up in hopes of regaining their criminal empires. However between resurrected geomancers, angry demons, and Xenothiumpowered thieves, it's not going to be easy.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I Don't own Teen Titans, if I did Slade would have been in Season Five more and Brother Blood would have had more appearances.

* * *

The Steel City Penitentiary, certainly lived up to its name, the entire building was made literally out of steel that was rusted into a dark, sickly color, giving off the feeling of corruption and decay that was so prominent in the city. The guards reflected so as well, as corrupted as those they kept in check, many taking sadistic pleasure torturing the criminals.

The exception was in the deepest, most heavily guarded cell, actually hidden several levels below the ground, behind in a triple-reinforced steel door. The criminal held in there reeked of unholiness that the guards did not dare try and test their luck.

In the cell was Brother Blood.

The broken cybernetic body of Brother Blood lay hooked up to various sorts of machines designed to repress his psychic abilities, S.T.A.R labs and Wayne Enterprises contribution to keeping one of the world's greatest cultists and terrorist leaders away from innocent people. Still his powerful mind was just barely able to bypass the machines and send out a signal for help.

The sound of an explosion signaled to him that his salvation had arrived.

Ten of what appeared to be ninjas rushed through the hole made in the wall, into the prison, dodging various shots from the guards' overly fancy laser guns. One was shot strait in the back of the head, causing much of the head to explode revealing only wires and circuit boards. With the revelation that the ninjas were robots, the few uncorrupted guards began firing with much more lethal intentions, destroying two more robots.

One ninja, who appeared to be the leader due to his different attire, ran down the corridor to the main holding room, while the others ran head on toward the guards. The ninja-bots were extremely skilled but were horribly outnumbered, and a well placed shot in the head signaled the end of the battle.

The guards stormed into the main holding room to see the ninja-leader typing on a device on the wall. With the last push of the button all the cell door flung open releasing hundreds of convicted criminals, eager for some payback at their old captors.

While the majority of the guards were quickly overwhelmed, one managed to notice through the chaos, the leader entering the elevator to the subterranean level.

'_But the only thing down there is…oh no!'_ the guard thought.

He quickly fired a skillfully accurate shot at the face, which made it that much more surprising when the ninja displayed surprising agility (especially in the confines of an elevator) and dodged the blast just before the elevator doors closed.

Deep below the ground in the dank subterranean levels, the elevator doors opened, revealing to the ninja-like man a small corridor with a heavily reinforced door at the end flanked by two more unusually heavily armed guards who raised their weapons when no one came out of the opened elevator.

The guards looked at each other in bewilderment, growing tenser at the resounding silence. The only time that elevator was used was to change shifts, and that wasn't for another three hours.

A device resembling an unusually large shuriken struck the wall next to the guards, the sharply stylized _S_ symbol on it glowing before exploding into a million pieces, killing the guards and destroying the door.

The ninja-like man stepped through the thick smoke created by his projectile into the holding cell.

Brother Blood looked up at his savior and grinned.

"Glad you made it." Blood said pleasantly. "Long time no see, Slade."


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note(s): Man it's been a long time since I've done anything with this fic, huh?

Updates will be far sooner and consistent from now on. Updates on this should come every Monday from now on, or at least that's my plan.

Reviews are always appreciated (particularly constructive criticism), and they do give more incentive to write.

* * *

"It was quite lucky that the machines that repressed my abilities had all the parts necessary to rebuild my arms." Brother Blood mused, passing by a handful of the now mind controlled guards and prisoners.

"I believe you mentioned something about paying in full, Blood." Slade mentioned, getting straight to the point.

"Oh yes, that's right. I admit, I was surprised when I learned that the most powerful criminal in the west coast had decided to go into the mercenary business. " Blood grinned. "Still, I'm certainly not complaining."

The Headmaster then looked at Slade intently, a question gaze on his face.

"Hoping to raise some capital for your eventual return to the criminal world, or is there another reason for your change in careers?" Blood inquired.

"My payment, Blood." Slade demanded.

"Ah, yes. About that there is a problem; I don't have your money quite yet." Blood said, nonchalantly.

Slade's eye narrowed into a slit.

"Oh, don't look so surprised, you must have at least suspected it, what with the destruction of the HIVE and all."

There was a few seconds of silence and then Slade whipped out his bo staff and swung it at Brother Blood's face. The headmaster simply teleported out of the way.

"Slade listen, contacting you is not the only thing I've managed to do, I have-" Blood was cut off as Slade delivered a swift punch to the face that the headmaster barley dodged.

"-found out about the Brotherhood's scheme, the Titans are off across the world searching for them and Titans East have taken their place in Jump City, leaving Steel City ours for the taking." Brother Blood continued, transforming his right arm into a sonic cannon and firing at Slade's feet, forcing the martial-arts master to dodge backwards out of the way.

"In addition, the entire criminal underworld is focused on the Brotherhood's gambit; we are free to rebuild our criminal empires unopposed."

At that Slade stopped dead in his tracks and put away the exploding disks he held between his fingers.

"I know that right now your resources are very limited, if not gone already." The deranged headmaster continued. "In fact I'd bet that those robots you had with you today were the last of your little army, now weren't they?"

It _was_ true. His impressive private army of robots was gone as of today and all of his headquarters' were completely wiped out. Accepting Blood's contract was basically a desperate attempt to gain _anything _to help rebuild his empire.

Not that Slade would ever say so to Blood's face.

"This is an opportune time to make our comebacks, and working together is be our best chance! Or would you rather have us waste precious time fighting like we are now?"

Slade retracted his staff and simply stared at the headmaster for a moment.

"What's your plan?" Slade asked.

"Well, first of all I need to acquire Xinothium in order to recharge my power cell." Brother Blood lifted his metallic forearm, on it showed a screen with five vertically stacked bars, only one of which was glowing green.

"All Xenothium suppliers pulled out of the business after the Red-X incidents." Slade pointed out.

"Oh, there is one place left that we can obtain it." Blood grinned, his eyes glowing blood red.

--

'_Of all the people and all the missions to go on, the Brotherhood sends me to Russia with three old geezers! I could be in Hawaii with that Cheshire babe!' _Red-Xthought, trekking through the snow.

Walking a few feet in front of him was Professor Chang, the ex-HIVE Headmistress, and Wintergreen. Behind him marched half a dozen Brotherhood of Evil shock troops (not the robots, the Nazi soldier looking guys).

"You sure there's Xinothium out here?" Red-X asked, skeptical.

"Of course, Red Star must discharge his radiation into the form of Xinothium periodically in order to keep his powers under some remote semblance of control." Professor Chang answered.

--

"You're certain about this?" Slade asked as they dropped down from the ventilation shaft in Red Star's home.

"Absolutely. I found all about Project: Red Star when I had Chang under my control. Now according to Red Star's computer systems, the canister containment room is right behind this door." A cable extended from Bloods arm to the keypad, quickly reading the code and deactivating the locks.

With a _swish_, the door swung open and the villains stepped through.

"My, my, quite the stock pile Red Star has, doesn't he?" Brother Blood marveled, "Just imagine what we could do with all of this Xinothium, hmm?"

"Indeed." Slade agreed, reaching to grab one of the canisters.

"However, I'm afraid it'll be us taking all the Xinothium!" Professor Chang called out, the rest of the Brotherhood expedition appearing behind him.

"Though thanks for disabling Red Star's security system and making it easier for us." Red-X chimed in.

Then all the villains in the room saw what only happens once in a blue moon. Slade caught completely by surprise.

Slade's body tensed and he stared in a wide eyed stupor, not at the Brotherhood goons, but at Wintergreen in particular, Wintergreen staring back with equal surprise. With partial coherence Slade scanned the room, trying to figure out what action to take. In a blur of speed almost worthy of Kid Flash he pulled out an exploding disk and heaved it at the cadre of villains. The Brotherhood's minions scattered out of the way and with now Wintergreen somewhat separated from the rest of them, Slade ran at the butler and punched him in the face, Wintergreen barley blocking it, having to step several steps farther away from the crowd of criminals in the process.

--

"Oh yes. Leave me with the rest of them." Brother Blood sarcastically muttered, summoning up a blood red energy shield with his right hand to deflect the shock troops' lasers.

"X, help Wintergreen. Chang, get the Xinothium." The Headmistress commanded, taking position as de-facto leader of the team.

The ex-Headmistress jumped up, attempting to sling a kick at Blood's face, which may have worked had Blood's cybernetic eye not detected her movements and conjured another, smaller, energy shield with his left hand to block her.

Using Blood's shield as a platform she jumped to the ground and continued a barrage of punches and kicks at her successor.

"Go to hell!" she screamed in midst of her attacks. This was obviously more personal than then simply a battle to steal the Xinothium.

"You're still upset about me taking control of your academy and driving you into hiding. Aren't you?" Blood grinned widely, showing his teeth.

The headmistress socked him in the jaw.

"Bastard."

--

Slade and Wintergreen attacked each other nearly symmetrically. Punches and kicks landing simultaneously. When Slade was sure that their pseudo-fight had moved them to a part of the room in which the rest were out of earshot, he whispered to Wintergreen.

"Well?" Slade demanded.

"You were correct sir; The Brotherhood of Evil is targeting Jericho." Wintergreen replied.

"And their need for Xinothium?"

"I don't know yet, master. The Brain isn't revealing his full plans yet with anyone except for the Inner Circle." The old man admitted.

"Then continue you're reconnaissance and report back to me at a later time." Slade concluded.

"Very well, though the Brotherhood of Evil will undoubtedly be suspicious with our reactions earlier." Wintergreen said.

Slade's eye narrowed. "Then this is what you are going to tell them…"

--

Ex-Headmaster of the HIVE, Brother Blood masterfully dodged a kick from the ex-HIVE Headmistress. The cyborg turned his body exactly at a 90 degree angle so when the Headmistress moved to attack him again she was directly in the path of the shock troops' line of fire. Distracted with the lasers that were no firing at her, Blood took his chance. Charging up energy in his hand, Blood merely flicked his fingers at her, the force of the energy sending her flying back into the Brotherhood soldiers, who toppled like empty beer bottles.

--

His conversation with Wintergreen done long ago Slade was now engaged in battle with both the butler (for fear of blowing his cover) and the thief Red-X.

Red-X nimbly jumped in the air, barley dodging another blow from Slade.

'_This would be so much easier if my suit was working.' _He thought.

Red-X still hadn't found another vial of Xinothium to power his suit since his encounter with the Titans. In fact that was half the reason he agreed to work for the Brain in the first place, and was considering simply grabbing the closest Xinothium container and running before he recalled the Brain's proposition.

'_I can give you the Xi-no-thi-um you re-q-ure, and I can do much more. I can give your suit a-bil-i-ties you could not imagine. So will you work for the Bro-ther-hood Red-X?' _the memory of the Brain's mechanical voice resonated in his head.

"Very impressive skills," Slade complimented in midst of sending a punch that (finally) hit the agile thief, sending him tumbling to the floor. "Quick, agile, resourceful; in fact you remind me of certain other highly skilled young man."

"Who are you all and what are you doing in my home?" A new, distinctly Russian voice sounded, causing the villains to cease their brawl of a moment.

Red Star stood at the entrance to the containment room, poised in what Slade recognized as a typical military battle stance.

Slade snapped his head in all directions, turning to look at every corner of the room. The ex-HIVE Headmistress had regained consciousness and began to regain her footing, the shock troops coming up behind her. Red-X was getting up as well, with Wintergreen's help. While Slade had that no doubt that Blood and himself could defeat the other villains, if the Russian hero were to join the fray it would be much more difficult to control the situation. Not to mention if Red Star were to go critical…

Calmly turning to face Brother Blood, who at the opposite side of the room had disabled Professor Chang and taken the Xinothium the mad scientist was in the midst of stealing into his own metallic hands, and calmly asked, "Blood. Do you happen to know of an attack Robin and Cyborg had often used, most noticeably on Plasmus during my first attack on Jump City?"

To that Blood simply smiled and replied in a mocking tone, "I've got the sonic if you've got the boom."

Time seemed to stand still for a few moments, a strange silence coming over the room. The Slade finally replied, "Never say that again."

"You are absolutely no fun."

Slade threw his most powerful exploding disk at Red Star. At the same time Brother Blood transformed his left arm into a sonic cannon and fired a blood red beam at the disk. The resulting explosion sent Red Star and the cadre of villains flying, while the two evil masterminds quietly slipped away via Brother Blood's teleportation, the two holding enough Xinothium to wipe out a city.

* * *

Author's Note(s):

- Slade becoming a mercenary is a reference to the comics the show was based on, where he _was _mercenary.

And in case you didn't remember the two extremely minor characters in the show that were featured in this chapter (and chapters to come).

- Wintergreen is Slade's butler who appeared by Slade's side in _Divide and Conquer_, and worked for the Brotherhood of Evil in _Homecoming Part 2 and Titans Together_.

- The ex-HIVE Headmistress appeared in _Final Exam,_ showing off Jinx, Mammoth, and Gizmo to Slade as well as _Titans Together _and on the face of a milk carton in_ Deception, _labled missing. Considering the missing part of that and that Brother Blood recently took control of the HIVE acadamy (Robin says "The HIVE Acadamy's new leader must be up to something") I drew my own conclusions.


End file.
